The invention relates to manufacturing management, and particularly to a manufacturing management system and method using a single MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to support multiple manufacturing sites.
In semiconductor manufacturing, several manufacturing phases including FAB (Fabrication), CP (Circuit Probe), BP (Bumping), CF (Color Filter), ASM (Assembly), FT (Final Test), and others are required for entire manufacturing. Additionally, several manufacturing sites may be provided for each manufacturing phase. Conventionally, each manufacturing site is controlled by one MES. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional manufacturing environment. In this case, the manufacturing site FAB 112 in manufacturing phase FAB 110 is controlled by MES 111, CP 122 in manufacturing phase CP 120 is controlled by MES 121, and FT 130 in manufacturing phase FT 130 is controlled by MES 131. One wafer may go through several manufacturing phases to become final products. After a lot is completed at manufacturing site FAB 112, the lot information is transmitted from MES 111 and created in MES 121.
Additionally, each MES has one copy of management data, such as a base record or product information comprising route, user authorization, lot information and others, with a manufacturing site processing lots accordingly. For example, in a conventional manufacturing environment 200 of FIG. 2, a MES A 211 comprises management data 213 and a manufacturing site A 212 processing lots accordingly, and a MES B 221 comprises management data 223 and a manufacturing site B 222 processing lots accordingly. The management data, however, such as product information in the MES A 211 and MES B 221 is similar. The data consistency is not easily maintained if one copy is updated. Further, since an IC foundry may include a plurality of manufacturing sites, and one host machine, one MES instance/license, one set of maintenance manpower is required for each site, thus, the related deployment and cost is time-consuming and expensive.
Another mechanism is provided to solve the data consistency issue. In FIG. 3, a master MES M 231 controlling a manufacturing site M 232 centrally manages management data 233. Once the management data 233 is updated, the updated management data is transferred to the MES A 211 and MES B 221 to update the original management data. The improved mechanism, however, only ensures the data consistency between different MES′. The cost for multiple MESs and related maintenance manpower are still issues to be overcome.